Related Tags

30 user experience quotes to warm your soul

Is design a science or an art? I reckon that, as far as the web is concerned, it’s a bit of both.

I searched on Google for an answer to the question and while I didn’t quite find one, I did spot a rather lovely Venn diagram created by The Imaginary Foundation. Try replacing the word ‘wonder’ with ‘design’, and we’re pretty much there…

Designing a wonderful user experience is a key part of trying to create an amazing customer experience, which is much broader, anchored as it is in products, service, process, fulfilment and so on. This is something we’re all – presumably – trying to do.

I’m not a big fan of inspirational quotes, much less those awful posters, but sometimes a smart soundbite or pithy observation can help us to spot the wood from the trees. As such I’ve compiled a bunch of my favourite quotes relating to the user experience and design. Hat tip to this thread on Quora and uxquotes.com.

SIMPLIFY

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” - Hans Hofmann

“The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

“Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.” - Leonardo da Vinci

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” - Albert Einstein

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“The only intuitive interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned.” - Bruce Ediger

"As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product." - Jef Raskin

"What makes people passionate, pure and simple, is great experiences. If they have great experience with your product and they have great experiences with your service, they’re going to be passionate about your brand, they’re going to be committed to it. That’s how you build that kind of commitment." – Jesse James Garrett

"When we have clients who are thinking about Flash splash pages, we tell them to go to their local supermarket and bring a mime with them. Have the mime stand in front of the supermarket, and, as each customer tries to enter, do a little show that lasts two minutes, welcoming them to the supermarket and trying to explain the bread is on aisle six and milk is on sale today. Then stand back and count how many people watch the mime, how many people get past the mime as quickly as possible, and how many people punch the mime out. That should give you a good idea as to how well their splash page will be received." - Jared Spool

“Design must seduce, shape, and more importantly, evoke an emotional response.” - April Greiman

DESIGN

“White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.” - Jan Tschichold

"A lot of what we are doing is getting design out of the way." - Jonathan Ive

"Don't make something unless it's both necessary and useful. But if it is both necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful." - Josh Porter

"It’s not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and yes, beauty to people’s lives." – Don Norman

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." – Douglas Adams

"The details are not the details. They make the design" - Charles Eames

“It’s art if can’t be explained. It’s fashion if no one asks for an explanation. It’s design if it doesn’t need explanation.” - Wouter Stokkel

“Good design keeps the user happy, the manufacturer in the black and the aesthete unoffended.” - Raymond Loewy

“Designers shooting for usable is like a chef shooting for edible.” - Aarron Walter

You might be interested in

Comments (9)

Comment

Send me notifications of follow up comments

Save or Cancel

Adam Hart, Flash & Motion Designer at The Engine Group

Great article, many useful quotes here. I've just Tweeted: "More so than ever, it seems marketing and advertising is going back to the 'human connection', in order to invoke response." Inspired by a quote from film director James Cameron, who highlighted the importance of the human connection when telling stories.

Enjoying this article?

Get more just like this, delivered to your inbox.

Keep up to date with the latest analysis, inspiration and learning from the Econsultancy blog with our free Digital Pulse newsletter. You will receive a hand-picked digest of the latest and greatest articles, as well as snippets of new market data, best practice guides and trends research.